,
12 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
This is the second year we have put together The Great Big Romance Read. We organize romance bookclubs and media all over the world to all read the same book in September.
1/12
1/12
This year we chose The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite. An absolutely fantastic f/f historical. This book deserves to be celebrated and widely read.
2/12
2/12
But now multiple participating groups are not able to get the book in time for their meetings next month and are having to drop out or change their meeting dates.
So @avonbooks why didn't you print enough of this book?
3/12
So @avonbooks why didn't you print enough of this book?
3/12
To me this is a really big deal and I will try to explain why:
4/12
4/12
Not printing enough of a book send the message:
"We don't think that many people will read this book."
5/12
"We don't think that many people will read this book."
5/12
And this becomes a huge problem when you are talking about a book featuring people from a marginalized community as is the case here. Because we KNOW that @avonbooks is out here talking about what a great job they are doing publishing diverse books.
6/12
6/12
How do I know that? BECAUSE THEY SAID IT IN PRINT
bit.ly/2KkbvRg
So I guess they want the praise in the press for publishing inclusive love stories, they just don't care if readers can actually get the book.
7/12
bit.ly/2KkbvRg
So I guess they want the praise in the press for publishing inclusive love stories, they just don't care if readers can actually get the book.
7/12
It should be noted at this point that that article includes this quote:
8/12
8/12
"Avon Books has seen an exponential increase in the number of inclusive romances published, said Pamela Jaffee, senior director of publicity and brand development, and the company is actively working to further increase representation in the books it publishes."
9/12
9/12
In 2016, 2.8% of their books were written by authors of color.
That number was 4.7% in 2017 and
4.8% in 2018.
10/12
That number was 4.7% in 2017 and
4.8% in 2018.
10/12
We organize The Great Big Romance Read to assist other independent bookstores in highlighting the best of romance.
It becomes difficult for us to advocate that our indie friends should be stocking romance when they can't even get the damn book!
11/12
It becomes difficult for us to advocate that our indie friends should be stocking romance when they can't even get the damn book!
11/12
It's difficult to call out a publisher like this. We often need to work directly with them. But we can't allow that to stop us from getting romance novels in the hands of readers, which is our ultimate and only goal.
12/12
12/12
